She Flunked

Ruth Marcus assesses Nancy Pelosi's first test as leader of the House Democrats and gives a failing grade to the performance. Funny how after the elections are over, the Washington Post finally notices the damning Abscam video of John Murtha. The grainy images prove without a doubt that the only way he dodged an indictment was that he didn't take the envelope right then and there. Instead, he held out for more.

The videotape is grainy, dark and devastating. The congressman and the FBI undercover agents — the congressman thinks they represent an Arab sheik willing to pay $50,000 to get immigration papers — are talking business in the living room of a secretly wired Washington townhouse.

Two other congressmen in on the deal "do expect to be taken care of," the lawmaker says. But for the time being — and he says repeatedly that he might change his mind and take money down the road — he'd rather trade his help for investment in his district, maybe a hefty deposit in the bank of a political supporter who's done him favors.

"I'm not interested — at this point," he says of the dangled bribe. "You know, we do business for a while, maybe I'll be interested, maybe I won't, you know." Indeed, he acknowledges, even though he needs to be careful — "I expect to be in the [expletive] leadership of the House," he notes — the money's awfully tempting. "It's hard for me to say, just the hell with it."

This is John Murtha, incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi's choice to be her majority leader, snared but not charged in the Abscam probe in 1980. "The Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history," Pelosi pledged on election night. Five days later she wrote Murtha a letter endorsing his bid to become her No. 2.

Not the most promising start.

His corruption has not decreased over time, as Marcus details. This man is an old school deal maker. He trades votes for earmarks so often that he has a spot named for him in the back of the room in the House chamber, 'Murtha's Corner'. That's where the trading gets done. You know, if the WaPo calls it lose-lose, Pelosi made a huge blunder here.

UPDATE: News flash: "Because it worked so well with John Kerry". Shields up!